


Self-Control

by still_lycoris



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5635069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik prides himself on his self-control but silence doesn't work so well around a telepath ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Self-Control

Erik prided himself on his self-control.

No, he couldn’t stop himself from having nightmares about … certain things in his life. Nightmares that perhaps somebody else might describe as terrible, haunting things that woke him up sweating and shaking. But he never made a single sound. Never once. He had mastered not even jerking upright these days. Nightmares were ridiculous. Nobody would ever make him suffer those things again and he wouldn’t let them affect him any more. He _wouldn’t_.

It was only that as he lay in the bed that Charles had made up for him, staring at the ceiling and trying to breathe, it was very hard to stop seeing the images that had just been playing in his mind. Very hard to just push it away and stop feeling it all again. He lay there, refusing to turn on the light because it was ridiculous to be afraid and waiting for them to fade away. They would go. They would. They _would_.

“Erik?”

The door had opened and Charles was standing there, his hair rumpled from sleep. Erik stared at him in the dim light, confused. It was the middle of the night. Why was Charles there?

“You woke me up,” Charles said, answering the unasked question. “You were screaming.”

Erik sat up, furious.

“I was _not_ screaming! How dare you?”

“Your mind was screaming,” Charles said quietly.

Erik didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t _argue_ \- Charles was a telepath, if he said Erik’s mind had been screaming, it must have been screaming. And the fact that he’d woken Charles up showed just how loud it had to have been …

How utterly shaming.

Charles came into the room, closing the door behind him. He padded quietly across the room and sat down on the bed, his hand coming up to rest on Erik’s shoulder.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed of nightmares. Everybody has them. You have more reason than most.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m one of the children, Charles.”

He meant it to sound angry but annoyingly, he just sounded tired to his own ears. The images were still lurking at the corner of his mind and he still couldn’t believe that he’d been crying out. Stupid. Childish.

Charles moved. For a moment, Erik though that he was going to leave but then realised that instead, Charles was actually wriggling into the bed with him.

“Come on. Lie down. _I_ need more sleep, even if you don’t and I’m not going to get it if you’re feeling like this.”

“What are you doing, Charles?”

“I used to do it for Raven when she had bad dreams. I’ll just chase the dark parts away for a bit and give you something warmer and happier. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

Erik wanted to say that it was none of Charles’s business to chase away the dark parts of him. He wanted to point that something Charles did for his adopted sister might not be quite so appropriate for an adult man. And he wanted to point out that even if Charles was going into his mind, there was certainly no need for him to do it in Erik’s bed with his arm around Erik’s waist, pressing his chest against Erik’s bare back.

Of course, it was comfortable. And warm. And the gentle feel of Charles in his mind wasn’t actually unpleasant. It was certainly getting rid of those awful, awful images … and he was quite tired, it would be nice to sleep …

Maybe he’d scold Charles tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12dayschristmas


End file.
